Time to Move On

My last night in Yangshuo, the place I have called home the last ten days, came to a close. After a night of World Cup soccer and drinking the local beer (what else?) with the other teachers, I looked up at the stars and thought about my time here. Teaching and getting to know so many smart students was a great experience. A part of me was sad to move on, but it was time.
I traveled to Longsheng with a fellow volunteer teacher named Ellieta who is from Amsterdam. We woke up at 6:00am to catch the bus to Dazai, home of the Yao minority group. The Yao women are famous for their long hair, so long that one of them holds the Guiness Book of World Records title for such long locks. They believe that long hair equates to a longer life. They cut the hair just once in their life when they turn 18. I think the Chinese in general believe anything long leads to life longevity. That is why they believe it is bad luck to break noodles before cooking them!
The Longsheng area is famous too for the terraced fields that line its hills. These fields are 800 years old and are quite an engineering accomplishment. The Yao have made the most of their land, and even today, the output is so low compared to other rice producing regions in China.
When we arrived, we were bombarded with Yao women asking us if we wanted to pay them to carry our backpacks to our destination. I can see why some people would pay for this service because the trek up to our lodge was SO LONG. There are no roads in the small village we stayed in because everything is built on the hill. Instead, there is just a bunch of stone steps that run throughout the village and surrounding hills. Climbing up them proved to be such an incredible physical challenge (I think I could have passed out if I didn't stop when I did), but the sense of accomplishment afterwards was pretty great. It's hard for me to convey just how high we climbed so take my word for it.
Our lodge was fantastic. The lodge's owner walked all the way to the village (30 minutes) to guide us, and again all the way up. We almost felt guilty paying 15 yuan ($1.88) a night for something that if located in Aspen or the Alps would easily go for $400 a night. The lodge was brand new, still with a fresh cedar scent. We couldn't understand how they could charge so little for such a nice place. Bonus: We were the only people staying there so we had the entire place to ourselves. We ate dinner there because we certainly were not going to walk all the way to the village. I ordered a pork dish. Later I saw the cook walk out of the kitchen into the neighboring stable, and emerge with a piece of meat that looked preserved in some strange way. I don't think I've ever ate food so close to the farm before.
Most of our time in Dazai was spent relaxing in the sun or hiking through the trails. At one point, we passed a parade of youth playing flutes, banging on cymbals, and lighting firecrackers every 200 feet or so. Also included in the march were two guys carrying a dead pig atop their shoulders on a gurney. As to what the procession was about, I do not know. We finished the evening off when a man on his porch invited us to sit with him. There was something a little off about him, but nevertheless, we sat on his porch, no words exchanged, watching the sun descend over the terraces. Strange too...He had some photographs taped to his window from the inside and I think one of the photos was of a stoop from Park Slope in Brooklyn! Tomorrow I set off for Yunnan Province to Kunming. This should set my personal record for longest train travel time-19 hours!